Extended Final Chapter of Breaking Tifa 2
by Kalta79
Summary: I was really tired when I posted the actual ending, so here's a more in-depth version, should be about 2 or 3 chapters total.
1. Chapter 1

"Don't you have a better outfit?" Reno complained when he saw Zack as they waited for the sign to take their assigned places for the opening ceremony.

"I leave the fashion crap to you." Zack testily replied.

Reno stared at Zack for a moment, surprised at his uncharacteristic moodiness, but shrugged it off and turned his attention to Yuffie. "Have you decided what you want to try yet?"

"I…I want you to dominate me in front of everyone." Yuffie tried one last time.

Reno frowned. "I'll ask you again when you know what you want." When Yuffie suddenly excused herself to the ladies' room, Cora followed her. "What was that about…ow!" he exclaimed when Zack suddenly slapped him upside the head. "What the hell was that for?"

"Cause you're a jackass and I've wanted to do it for a long time." Zack retorted. "And because you couldn't resist meddling in my sex life, so I'm returning the favor. Man, that felt good…"

"Keep your hands to yourself!" Reno demanded when Zack readied another blow. "And why am I being accused of being a jackass **this** time?" Reno wanted to know.

"Because you're the one with the problem now, not Yuffie." Zack told him.

"I repeat…what the hell are you talking about?" Reno wanted more of an explanation.

"You've been pushing her to be her own person again, and while it's admirable, you need to quit trying to decide what that is for her. When she finally knows what she really wants and tells you, you dismiss it by acting like she doesn't know what she wants, but you do. How is that any different from everyone who abused her?" Zack clarified.

Reno opened his mouth to refute Zack's statement, but he couldn't think of anything, and then the bell sounded, alerting them to take their places, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Aerith stood at the top of the stairs. "I present to you Her Esteemed Majesty, the Divine Empress!" she called out, signaling the guards to carry in the palanquin.

Once the formalities were all finished and the 'donated' virgin was being defiled by whoever won her as a door prize, Tifa breathed a sigh of relief. The hauntings weren't active right now, but she was getting very disturbed by constantly seeing dead people who seemed to be threatening her or Aerith. Sephiroth couldn't come back, he just couldn't! "Come join me." she said to Aerith, patting a spot next to her on the palanquin. It wasn't just to protect her physically that she wanted her handmaiden with her, but she didn't want the crude sexuality of the Bacchanalia to corrupt Aerith's precious innocence. Their position at the top of the stairs was quite convenient with their slight isolation from the party down on the main floor.

"I…I have a surprise for you." Aerith told Tifa as she sat down next to her and eagerly submitted to Tifa's advances.

"What is it?" Tifa asked, kissing Aerith's smooth neck while caressing her.

"I…I wanted to make you proud of me, so I had an outfit specially made for this." Aerith replied.

"Oh?" Tifa was curious and slightly annoyed that Aerith hid something from her. "What is it?"

Aerith gently separated from Tifa and stood up, undoing her dress and letting it fall at her feet, exposing the costume Reno had made for her. "I hope you like it."

Tifa's jaw dropped as she stared at her sweet handmaiden's beautiful body displayed so brazenly, as if to say _Fuck me like a common_ …"You…you **WHORE**!" Tifa yelled, shoving Aerith away from her.

Everyone on the main floor froze as they heard Aerith scream out for Tifa as she fell down the stairs.

Zack, Yuffie, Reno, and Cora all ran to the bottom of the stairs, but Reno reached Aerith's unmoving body first and felt for a pulse.

"Is…she…" Zack couldn't bring himself to say any more, and he didn't even feel Cora put a comforting hand on his arm as they looked at Reno for an answer.

"I'm sorry, man." Reno told him, and Yuffie helped Cora support Zack when the heart went out of him.

They all looked up at Tifa, who was shaking her head, confused as to why Aerith was straight ahead of her, floating up in the air and wearing a virginal dress, looking adoringly at Tifa as usual. Suddenly Sephiroth appeared next to her. "AERITH!" Tifa yelled to warn her, holding her hand out for Aerith to grab, but then he put his hand around Aerith's neck and they both vanished. Tifa blinked in terrified confusion.

"Tifa!" Zack snatched Cora's ice dagger from her sheath and sent dozens of razor-sharp ice shards flying towards her.

The materia Tifa always wore disintegrated them, but it brought her attention back to the bottom of the stairs, and she stared at Aerith's body in shock. Did she just…no, Sephiroth can't have…Tifa slowly descended the stairs, disbelieving what she was seeing. "Aerith, wake up honey. You've got to wake up, people are staring at you. You're better than this." Tifa kept repeating until she reached the bottom step, tilting her head to stare at Aerith's eyes, wondering why they seemed so dull.

"Damn you!" Zack told her, his voice filled with all the hatred he had suppressed for Aerith's sake..

"I didn't…it was Sephiroth, I didn't…I couldn't…" Tifa started shaking her head in denial, then suddenly a horrendously tortured scream burst out of her, and she ran for the nearest exit.

"Took her long enough." Reno calmly stated, and everyone else gasped when Aerith suddenly started moving again. "I'll explain later, after I take care of some unfinished business, just like I promised." he told the astonished crowd before he chased after Tifa.

Tifa didn't know where she was going, she just kept running, trying to escape the horror of a life without Aerith caused by her own hand. Suddenly she found herself in front of the door to the eastern tower, and she used the fire materia to turn the door into ashes. Running up the stairs, she turned the second door into ashes as well. In the room where it all started years ago, Tifa started picking up things, remembering Aerith touching them as well, and the books Tifa would read to her to help her sleep.

"I didn't mean it!" She screamed again and the fire materia went crazy, igniting whatever it could find. The smoke started obscuring her vision and making it hard to breathe, and that's when she saw Sephiroth again, this time laughing at her. " **YOU**!" The single word came from a crazed and anguished soul, and she launched herself at him.

Reno was just outside the tower when Tifa came crashing through the single window at the top that Sephiroth had been standing in front of. The glass shards and some drops of blood fell with her. Her cries for Aerith stopped when she landed on top of the helicopter. "Not my bird!" he cried out in dismay as Cora and Yuffie joined him.

"What happened?" they asked in unison, trying to catch their breath.

"I'll tell you all in the morning." Reno told them, trying to not pout that his plan backfired a little, and the bitch probably ruined his prized helicopter. "We'll need to have her dealt with, and someone needs to put out the fire in the tower. Is the party still going?"

"Why?" Yuffie wondered why that was even important now.

"You'll find out." Reno gently spanked her. "Go find us a nice open bed."

"Do you mean…" Yuffie felt her heart leap up, overriding her confusion and curiosity about what just happened.

"I gave you an order, why aren't you doing it?" Reno pointed out.

"I'll do it right away." Yuffie was beaming as she hurried back to the main chamber, passing the guards who Cora had summoned to put out the fire.

"That takes care of that." Reno made sure the illusion materia was still safely hidden in his goggles before telling Cora again to have someone remove Tifa from his bird and clean it up as well.

"You said Aerith was dead." Cora accused him, her hand on her ice dagger. She had no idea what exactly happened, but whatever this man did, it hurt the only three people she had to protect.

"No, I told Zack I was sorry for him. And I meant it. I told you, I'll explain it all in the morning. Just remember, you don't fuck with a Turk's wife." Reno's chesire cat grin was in full force as the smug man headed after Yuffie to give her what she wanted.

Cora stared after him… _Turk_? Why did that sound so familiar?

Zack fought the grief and rage he felt as Aerith slowly regained consciousness. He didn't know what Reno did, but it didn't matter, faking her death at Tifa's hand crossed a serious line with him.

"What…what happened?" Aerith's words were slightly slurred from grogginess. "I…I hurt."

"Sssshhhh, don't talk yet. It's okay now." Zack told her, stroking her hair. "You just fell down the stairs, that's all."

"I did?" Aerith's memory focused. "I…she…I just wanted to make her proud of me!" she sobbed, devastated and confused to the very core of her being. Tifa had **never** been violent with her before, either in word or deed. "Doesn't she love me anymore?"

"Of course she does. Who couldn't love someone like you?" Zack carefully held his wife in his arms so he wouldn't hurt her further when he saw Reno's familiar lanky figure stroll towards them. "How could you?" he demanded to know when Reno stood in front of them.

"I did what I promised." Reno replied negligently. "You knew it wasn't going to be pretty."

"Where is the Empress? I need to apologize to her." Aerith gulped out between sobs, and Zack switched his focus to comforting his distraught wife.

"You can do that in the morning. She's not feeling well right now. And if you'll excuse me, I've got to deal with my own wife, thanks to your damned meddling." Reno spied Yuffie on one of the non-curtained beds, and she was starting to attract a crowd by those who wondered if she was still for all to enjoy. He left Zack and Aerith, pushing his way through the guests who were  
just milling about, uncertain what was going on. When he reached the  
bed, he grabbed Yuffie and kissed her. "Is this really what you want?"  
he whispered to her.

Yuffie was relieved he had shown up. "Yes!" she fervently whispered back.

Reno had never heard her speak so firmly, so maybe she really meant  
it. He shrugged and whispered to her again. "How far do you want to  
go?"

"All the way." Yuffie insisted.

"Tell these people what this is." he ordered her in a normal voice,  
putting a hand possessively on her backside.

"It's my..." She stopped when he suddenly spanked her.

"Whose is it?" he asked her in a forbidding tone.

"Yours, my Husband." Yuffie corrected herself.

"You erred, wife." Reno told her. "You forgot who you are."

"I didn't mean to." Yuffie bowed her head. "Please forgive me, Husband."

"Strip and assume the position, wife." he demanded as he unfastened his pants.

"Yes, my Husband." Yuffie repentantly took her clothes off and got on  
all fours. Most of the crowd had left upon finding out she wasn't  
available, but a few voyeurs stayed, hoping for a good show.

"Open your mouth." Reno told her as he knelt on the bed in front of her.

Yuffie instantly obeyed, and Reno held her head firmly in place as he  
guided himself inside. She automatically performed for him since this  
was how it all started for her, two years and one month ago when she  
was first taken prisoner. This was what they did to her first, making  
her take Cloud in the mouth. But now…Yuffie would have smiled if she  
could have as Reno groaned in pleasure and his hands involuntarily  
tightened their grip on her. She had done this countless time for so  
many men, but never for Reno until now, the only one who mattered to  
her, and she enjoyed using her expertise to please him, even if to an  
outsider it looked like he was forcing her.

"Do you remember who you are now, wife?" he asked her when she  
finished. He had forgotten too, but only of just how proficient she  
would be.

"Yes, my Husband." Yuffie responded, looking up at him expectantly for  
more instructions.

"Turn around." Reno ordered her. Yuffie did as she was told, still  
fighting to keep a smile off her face, since she needed to seem  
properly chastised. "Who gets to fuck you?" he questioned her as he  
lubed up.

"Nobody but my husband fucks me." she answered almost immediately.

"How?" Reno pulled her ass firmly against him.

"However he wants." Yuffie's pulse quickened as she felt his readiness.

"Why?" Reno kissed the small of her back and his lips traveled up her  
body to nibble at her neck. He wasn't all too happy that Yuffie wanted  
to be submissive after all, but that's what she said she wanted, and  
he had the usual post-mission horniness, so he'd just consider this  
role-playing.

"Because I belong to him." Yuffie's voice had a slight quaver in it as  
Reno slid one of his hands up her body as well, to play with her  
breasts and his other hand went between her legs. He was just as  
skilled with his fingers as she was with her mouth, and her hands dug  
into the mattress as he started priming her.

"You like this, don't you?" he murmured, moving his lips briefly to her ear.

"Yes." Yuffie moaned. She had expected him to take her up the ass  
right away as a further example to everyone that she was his, instead  
she was subjected to the most intense stimulation she had experienced.  
His fingers would stroke her and occasionally slide in and out with  
the precision she had come to recognize as his trademark, and his  
other hand would switch from one breast to the next, fondling them  
until her nipples were as hard as he was, and his lips moved between  
her neck and ears. Yuffie was helpless against such an onslaught, and  
she had never wanted sex more. She could feel him hard against her  
ass, why didn't he take her and finish it? Every nerve in her body was  
screaming for him to claim her, but Reno suddenly slowed the pace, and  
Yuffie cried out from the abrupt change when she had just been about  
to orgasm. Now he kept her body in that state, just on the verge of  
total pleasure, and she couldn't endure such exquisite torture for  
very long. "Please fuck me!" The words burst out of Yuffie.

"Are you begging, wife?" Reno asked her with his customary smirk.

"Yes, I need my Husband to fuck me." Yuffie pleaded.

"Keep begging." Reno ordered her as he picked up the pace again.

"I need to feel you inside me." "Please take what's yours." "I want to  
please your dick." Yuffie obediently said whatever came to mind to  
satisfy him so he would complete his domination of her, and she was  
rewarded by him finally letting her orgasm, unaware he had chosen that  
moment to enter her. Her cries of pleasure turned to purrs as she felt  
him thrust into her, gently at first, then harder as she so eagerly  
responded to him.

"I didn't say you could stop begging." he told her in a slightly harsh  
tone. Yuffie nodded and obeyed, reveling in his total domination of  
her. Reno's hands and lips were still everywhere on her body while he  
was inside her, she was truly his now, the one man who had never  
abused her, and everyone was witnessing her complete and willing  
submission to him as her monogamous master. No one else would touch  
her ever again, she was finally safe.

Their bodies came in unison as if they had done this countless times  
before, their mingled cries of fulfillment replaced by the near  
silence of their labored breathing as they recovered. Reno was  
stunned, he hadn't expected to enjoy it that much. "That…that wasn't  
so bad." he panted when they could speak, half-collapsed against his  
wife's body. "We'll finish this in our own bedchamber, understood?"

"I am yours to command, my Husband." Yuffie's voice was rich with love.


	2. Chapter 2

Aerith was still sobbing over Tifa's attack on her as Zack gently laid her in their bed. He used a healing materia on Aerith before getting into bed with her and taking her in his arms. As soon as he touched her, she suddenly remembered she was still wearing the outfit that Tifa hated so much. She tore herself from his arms, jumping out of bed and trying to claw it off her. "Get it off! Get it off!" she screamed hysterically.

Zack jumped out of bed too and grabbed her hands to stop her from hurting herself. "Calm down, I'll take it off." he told her, and quickly undressed her.

"What did you do to me?" Aerith ranted at her husband, freeing her hands from his grasp and needing to blame someone. "Why didn't you tell me she wouldn't like the outfit?" Her mind was in a horribly chaotic state, her brainwashed submission to Tifa making her unable to blame the Empress for anything. "I hate you! I hate you!" Aerith punctuated her words by hitting Zack's chest with her small fists. "I hate..." She suddenly collapsed onto the floor. "She hates me!" Aerith started crying again and shaking uncontrollably. How could she live with herself without Tifa's approval? "I didn't mean to make her ashamed of me! I'll never do anything ever again without her permission. I was bad...I'm not good for anything...I'm just a stupid blind whore who doesn't deserve to be loved!" Her voice was full of self-loathing.

"Don't talk like that, you hear me? You know how important you are to her. You just surprised her, that's all, and she's not used to that." Zack said as he held her tightly to comfort her and make sure she wouldn't try to hurt herself. He hated defending Tifa, but there wasn't much he wouldn't do for Aerith, and she truly was innocent of the evil that was Tifa.

"When can I see her again to beg for forgiveness?" Aerith wanted to know. "I need a goodnight kiss from her!" she cried in almost a childlike wail. Aerith couldn't remember the last time she had been forced to endure the pain of not having Tifa's lips promise her a good night.

"I guess you'll just have to make do with me for now." Zack said in a determinedly light tone. "Reno promised you could see her in the morning, remember."

Aerith mentally latched like a barnacle onto that promise. "I'll see her in the morning. I'll see her in the morning. I'll see her in the morning." she kept repeating to herself, rocking back and forth in Zack's arms as he silently cursed both Reno and Tifa for what they did to his beloved wife.

When Aerith finally fell into an exhausted sleep hours later, Zack felt just as wrung out as she must. He hoped she would stay asleep this time. She would start to doze off, only to suddenly wake up and start crying out, either begging for Tifa's forgiveness or ranting about how horrible she must be to deserve Tifa's anger, then wear herself out and go back to sleep. When enough time passed without her waking up again, he quietly left her, locking the door so she couldn't leave and do something drastic if she woke up without him there. He made his way to Reno and Yuffie's room, unlocking the door without waking either of them up. He paused for a moment as he approached the bed, noticing the handcuffs on the nightstand and how they were sleeping so peacefully in each other's arms, the very picture of loving contentment. A twinge of jealously was added to his rage as Reno's eyes popped open, his training alerting him to Zack's presence.

"Don't you know how to knock?" Reno asked him, none too happy to have dropped his guard, wondering if he could excuse it since he and Yuffie wore each other out before sleep overcame them.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Zack angrily demanded, grabbing Reno out of bed and slamming him into the wall. "You almost got her killed!"

"I didn't think she'd actually push your wife down the stairs. And I said I was sorry." Reno calmly explained, understanding of Zack's feelings since he himself went after Tifa to avenge all the suffering she caused his own wife. "But I knew destroying her mental image of Aerith would open the door to destroying her. There was an illusion materia in the Wutaian treasury that I used to help, making Tifa think she saw dead people. You telling me about Aerith's dream with Sephiroth and Cloud gave me the idea." Reno looked over at the bed, leering at his wife who was rather alarmed by Zack's rage. "I was gonna use the materia for some role-playing, but we'll try that when we get back home." he told Yuffie.

"You really don't get it, do you?" Zack couldn't believe Reno's stupidity. "Aerith can't live without Tifa anymore! She spent most of the night crying her eyes out, begging for Tifa's forgiveness for that damned outfit, blaming herself for everything! Killing Tifa is the same as killing Aerith, you stupid bastard!" Zack had never felt more like murder than he did at that moment.

"Then it's a good thing Tifa is still alive, isn't it?" Reno said.

"What?" Zack stopped his ranting and stared at Reno.

"Follow me." Reno threw some clothes on and gestured for Zack and Yuffie to follow him. She hurriedly dressed and joined them on their way to the dungeon. They stopped in front of what had been Zack's and then Elena's cell, and found Tifa strapped in the chair, seemingly asleep, garbed in lowly prison rags instead of her materia-laden attire. "The healing materia worked almost automatically, and she didn't fall that far cause she landed on the chopper instead of the  
ground." Reno's voice turned sour. His plan had two unintended snags, the potentially fatal assault on Aerith, and that bitch having the nerve to save herself by hurting his precious bird. Sure the damage was really just cosmetic, but it was the principle of the thing!

Suddenly Tifa's head shot up and she started laughing maniacally. "You can't fool me…I'd never hurt her! It was always Sephiroth!" She ranted more as she struggled against the restraints, and they left her there, Zack wondering how his wife was going to handle this…if Tifa couldn't forgive her, Aerith would never forgive herself either.

Cora joined them as they were leaving the dungeon, and she wondered briefly why all the guards seemed to be avoiding her since the morning of the Bacchanalia, before she focused on her reason in seeking the guests out. "Sir Reno, what is a Turk?"

"A dead hero." Reno snapped at her, still feeling a twinge of grief mixed with rage after all these years. "They don't exist anymore."


	3. Chapter 3

"You can leave anytime." Zack told Reno and Yuffie on their way to the dining room for breakfast, after he told Cora to watch Aerith and gave her the key. "Party's definitely over. There will be no more Bacchanalias at the castle."

"Won't you need help?" Yuffie asked him. She did like Zack from the little she knew of him, since he also never hurt her, but he was Aerith's.

"You've done more than enough." Zack replied bitterly, more to Reno than to her.

Yuffie got into the co-pilot's seat and watched her husband go through his mental pre-flight checklist. He seemed rather subdued while almost angry at the same time, and she didn't know the cause, unless he was more upset about the problems Zack and Aerith were now facing then he let on. Once they were airborne, she reached over to slide her hand into his pants and started fondling him. "Do you need me to please you?" she asked.

His first thought was to refuse her, but realized he was rather wound up from being asked about the Turks after all this time. "Take your panties off." he replied. Once she obeyed, he took her hand and carefully pulled her into his lap, positioning her so she wouldn't interfere with his piloting, and wrapped her arms around his neck. He stroked her hair and tucked it behind her ear before gently caressing her cheek. "From now on, you don't wear panties unless I tell you."

"As my Husband wishes it." Yuffie agreed to his demand.

"Then do your duty, wife." Reno's hand now drew her head to his for a kiss. His resistance to a submissive wife had faded fast when it became obvious how assertive she was in her submission to him. Once back in their bedchamber, they had spent most of the night working on getting the kinks out of their new roles, literally. Yuffie hadn't hesitated to let him know what she didn't like, and they had decided on 'Tifa' as their safe word, since saying her name would kill the mood anyway. He had her pick one of the books and they started working through it, getting almost halfway before they exhausted themselves, skipping the ones that bothered his wife.

Yuffie opened his fly and drew out his stiffened member, guiding him inside her as he broke the kiss so he could concentrate on getting them home safely. She was so grateful that he had finally accepted her submission, and that he had promised to never blindfold or gag her. She couldn't handle that again, and she would never have to. Yuffie smiled, equally enjoying the pleasure he gave her and the thrill she felt from pleasing him.

Reno smiled too, when she started making those purring sounds she had frequently made during the night. She really wasn't faking her contentment in being dominated, provided he didn't cross her boundaries. But then he wouldn't whip a woman anyway or gag one, since he liked to hear them, and as for no blindfold, she didn't mind closing her eyes, so it was all good. He was just glad there were things she would say no to. "Say it." he ordered her.

"My ass is yours alone." Yuffie obediently answered. "My body is never to please anyone else."

"You do have a nice one." he told her, taking one of his hands off the controls to playfully pinch her bottom. "And what happens if you ever forget who you are?"

"My Husband rightfully punishes me however he deems fit." she replied in a strained voice as his hands now clutched her ass and he drove himself deeper into her.

Reno smirked as he felt Yuffie's hands clench into fists behind his neck and her purring got louder. Her body seemed to crave domination as much as she did, and he was willing to oblige her. "Now say what you want, wife."

Yuffie knew that meant she had to beg in the most crass and vulgar terms she could think of, and she did so right away, in a humble pleading tone, eager for the reward he always gave her for degrading herself. Reno's smirk widened as her pleas were interrupted by her saying words that he recognized as names of Wutaian gods as her body exploded, his own climax not far behind. "Thank you for letting me serve you, Husband." Yuffie breathed, laying her head on his chest.

"You're turning out to be a good wife so far." Reno told her. "Now get up and sit back in my lap so you can see out."

"Are you going to take me up the ass again?" Yuffie asked him a little while later, as she felt him harden against her bare bottom.

"Nice try, you little vixen, but the lube's in our luggage." Reno informed her. "We'll be home in a couple hours, ask me then."

"Lube? Is that why it didn't hurt?" Yuffie asked him.

"What do you mean?" Reno frowned.

"When you dominated me at the Bacchanalia, it was the first time it didn't hurt for someone to do that to me." Yuffie explained, remembering how they either just didn't care if she enjoyed it or not, or they deliberately wanted it to hurt, demanding pained cries from her.

"If you thought it would hurt, why'd you want me to do it?" Reno wanted to know as stormy emotions passed fleetingly over his face.

"I would willingly endure pain from _you_ once if it meant I would never have to endure other people hurting me again." Yuffie admitted as she leaned herself back against him. "I love serving you."

"If anyone else does ever touch you again, I'll kill them." Reno vowed. "And you know there's only reason I would ever hurt you, don't you?"

"Because I was a bad wife." Yuffie answered.

"So just serve me faithfully and there won't be a problem." Reno told her.

"Always." Yuffie promised, a soft smile on her lips as she rested her head back to lay on his shoulder.

"You'll make a proper wife yet once I finish training you." Reno leaned his head to kiss the hollow of her throat as his fingers easily stroked her into ecstasy once more.

Zack quietly entered the room, grateful that Aerith was still sleeping. Cora was sitting in a chair, reading a book. "Has she woken up at all?" he whispered to Cora.

"Yes." she whispered back with a disturbed expression on her face. "Is she alright?"

"She hasn't been alright since Tifa got ahold of her." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Cora was about to chide him for disrespecting the Empress when Aerith suddenly bolted awake.

"Is it morning yet?" she asked them desperately.

"Yes, it is." Zack reluctantly admitted. "Do you want to see her now?"

"As soon as I make myself look how she wants me to. Will you help me, Cora?" Aerith was practically begging her.

"Of course, Lady Aerith." Cora replied.

Aerith eagerly followed Zack and Cora to the dungeon, even if she didn't understand why they were leading her there. She was wearing a pure white dress, with light pink ballerina slippers and her hair braided with light pink ribbon and coiled on top of her head The white materia was dangling from the matching ribbon choker she wore, and Aerith hoped her demure virginal appearance would win Tifa's approval back. Cora had promised her that she looked beautifully fresh and innocent.

"I have to warn you, she's not feeling well." Zack told Aerith as they stopped in front of the door to Tifa's cell.

"Is it because she's still mad at me?" Aerith asked fearfully.

"No!" Zack snapped, then sighed and apologized to her. "Let's get this over with."

Aerith was a mass of nerves as she stepped into the room, made more uncertain by Zack's unusual behavior. "Lady Tifa?" Aerith called out, wondering why it smelled so foul in the room. "I'm here to apologize."

"You can't trick me anymore, Sephiroth! Aerith would never need to apologize to me! She's perfect! I made her that way!" Tifa ranted at her. "I'll burn the whole world before I let you have her!"

"Lady Tifa, it is me, please don't be angry at me anymore." Aerith walked towards the sound of her voice, reaching out to touch her. "Why...why are you restrained? What's going on?" Aerith's voice broke. "Why aren't you in the throne room?"

"Don't touch me! You're a fraud! You're not my Aerith...he made me kill her, and when I kill myself, I'll destroy every last remnant of you in the lifestream!" Tifa continued her ranting.

"Lady Tifa, I'm alive. Please don't talk like that!" Aerith pleaded. "Just tell me everything's going to be okay. You promised me you'd never leave me, remember?"

Tifa's maniacal laugh chilled Aerith to the bone. "You're not listening, are you? I always keep my word, in life or death, I'll always be with Aerith!"

"Let's go." Zack told Aerith, and gently led her out of the cell, telling Cora to lock the door.

"What's...what's happened to her?" Aerith gasped in shock.

"She...she went mad when she thought she killed you." Zack explained.

"Noooooo!" Aerith cried out as she collapsed. "I...I did this to her!"

Zack gently picked Aerith up and carried his distraught wife back to their bedchamber. "I told you how important you were to her, but this isn't your fault. Remember, she said you had nothing to apologize for."

"But I have! I made her hurt me because I was bad! That's why she doesn't remember me! I...I betrayed her and she is suffering because of _me_!" Aerith sobbed hysterically as she curled up into a ball. "How...how can anything hurt this much?!"

"Would these help her pain?" Cora quietly asked Zack, showing him the bottle of pills Tifa had given her. She wasn't sure they would work, but she didn't know what else to do, and she couldn't stand seeing Lady Aerith so miserable.

"I don't ever want to see those again!" Zack angrily snapped, knocking the bottle out of her hand and sending it flying into the wall, where it shattered, sending pills and glass shards flying through the air, some of which landed on the bed with Aerith.

She went to pick one off her arm, but grabbed it wrong, and she yelped when it sliced her hand, then smiled as an idea occurred to her. Aerith picked up the piece again with her bloody hand, and was about to stab herself when Zack grabbed her and Cora took the glass shard forcibly from her hand. "Don't you understand? It's just like Lady Tifa said, we can be together in death!" Aerith wailed.

"Get the healing materia from the nightstand drawer." Zack ordered Cora as he held Aerith in a vise grip. "She's not dead and she hasn't really left you." he told his wife. "If you hurt yourself, aren't you betraying her again? She told you many times that she would never let anyone hurt you."

"She's my everything! I need her...I can't live like this!" Aerith broke down sobbing again as Cora healed her wounds with the materia, unable to cope with the broken emptiness of her freedom.


End file.
